Fertilizer.



eighty to ninety meshes to the square inc UNITED STATES PATENT orrron.

WILLIAM BACHMAN OHISOLM, or CHARLESTON, SOUTH oARoLIN FERTILIZER. I I

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented June 26,1906.

Application filed September 19.1904. Serial No. 226,102.

To all whom it may concern:.

Be it known that 1, WILLIAM BAOHMAN CHIsoLM, a citizen of the United States, residing in Charleston, county of Charleston, State of South Carolina, have invented certain new and useful Im rovements in Fertilizers; and I do hereby eclare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

My invention relates to certain new and useful improvements in fertilizers, and has for its object the production of a fertilizer which in part subserves the function of a germicide and which, while of greatly decreased cost of production in comparison with the ordinary phosphatic fertilizers now on the market, is of largely increased efliciency in use .and is practically without destructive ef' fect upon any kind of crop or of the bagging or the like in which it may be stored or transported.

Prior to my invention it has been customary in the manufacture of pho'sphatic fertilizer to grind fossil or bone phosphate in a suitable mill to a degree sufiicient to pass through a relatively coarse sieve of, sa

and to then add to the ground material a like weight of sulfuric acid for the purpose of converting the insoluble phosphate into a solu,

ble form adapted to support and'nourish plant life. In practice it is found expedient to grind the phosphate finer than the degree specified, for the reason that when so ground there is a great tendency to ball up and aecess of the acid to the rock particles is prevented, resulting in an incomplete solution and a more or less acid and wet mass, which is apt to destroy the bags in which it is shipped and which it is very difiicult, if not impossible, to properly distribute in the field.

In the practice of my invention I dispense entirely with the use of sulfuric acid in the production of the fertilizer, thereby eliminating it as an item of expense and as an element of possible detriment to the distributingand storing capacity of the fertilizer. In lieu thereof I employ sulfur in a finely-divided condition. This I am enabled to do the more efiectually for the reason that I have discovered that ordinary lump sulfur, (seconds,)

although incapable of being effectively ground by itself to the required degree, may be so ground when associated in a crushed condition with the crushed phosphate. This discovery results in an enormous saving, 'm

over the employment of the much more ex: pensive flowers of sulfur sometimes used as a germicide and has the additional advantage of insurin an absolutely uniform and intimate admixture of the ground phosphate and sulfur in the resultant form of an almost impalpablc powdera result impossible of attainment except by grinding the two ingredients together.

As above intimated, the phosphate rock and the sulfur are first passed together through .i'espect to the cost of the sulfur employed,

a preliminary crusher, reducing them to the average. size of, say, a pea or bean. The crushed rough mixture is then admitted into a pulverizing-mill of the Lucop or other suitable type and is reduced therein to an impalpable powder, any tailings being returned to the mill for further grinding. The resultant is an intimate and uniform admixture of phosphate rock and sulfur in the form of an almost impalpable powder and in an absolutely dr condition. I find that the percentage of su fur, by weight, to give effective results may in some instances be as low as forty pounds to the ton of the mixture i. e., forty pounds of sulfur to nineteen hundred and sixty pounds of phosphate rock-and in other 1 instances from sixty to one hundred pounds of sulfur to the ton of mixture; but I do not desireto limit myself to these exact proportions, as it is obvious that they may be varied to a greater or less degree without departing from the spirit of my invention. tureis homogeneous in the sense that the The mix-- grinding operation has so intimately admixed its particles and brought them to such a fineness and e uality of size that they are evenly distribute throughout the mass and incapable of segregation. This mixture is itself a separate article of manufacture and sale, adapted to be admixed with nitrogen and potash, or either of them, or materials containing either or both, according to the par ticular necessities of the soil and the character of the'crop' 'tobe planted. This admixture can be properly effected only at the factory by grindingthe nitrogen or potash berring materials, or both of them, in a mill of similar type to that-wherein the phosphate rock and sulfur were ground and together with the ground mixture of rock and sulfur, so

that on its exit from this latter grinding and mixing the product will still have'the and two hundred pounds of cornmercial'nie trate of soda," the cottonse'ed meal furnishing about eight per cent. of ammonia, the commercial nitrate of soda furnishing about nineteen per cent. of ammonia, and the kainite furabout twelve per cent. of otash. eat the relative p'ercentagesor desir- 'able ingredients would be, say, eight hundred I nishing For w pounds of the ground mixture o. phosphate rock and sulfur, ground together with-eight hundredpounds of cotton-seed mealand four hundred pounds of kainite. For cottonthe relative percentages of desirablein' redients would be, say, ground mixture of phosphate rock and sulfur, sixhundred pounds of cotton-seed meal, four hundred poundsof kainite and two hundred I pounds of commercial sulfate of magnesia.

give these individual instances as generally typical of appropriate mixtures adapted for use for the particular-crops specifie In the practical use of my invention I find that the crops produced are apparently far superior to what mightreasonabl be expected from the amount of availa le phosphate, nitrogen, and potash or other in edients present in the final mixture. his may be due in part to the extreme fineness an intimate association of the admixed particles tending to facilitate their ready and uniform distribution through the soil, their chemical interaction under the influence of the moisture of the soil and the infiltrations ei ht hundred poun' s of the senses condition of'im' a/lpable powder; but I am further led to be ieve that the sulfur itself has an independent effect as a germicide, destro ing bacterial and insect life prejudicial to t e plant and either not interfering with or positively stimulating helpful bacteria. I may state,further, that in my 0 inion the efficac of the ground mixture of p osphate and suf fur is largely, if not wholly, dependent upon the employment therewith of the additional potash'or nitrogen supplying ingredient. 9111 act, without the cooperationof the one-or the other (generall both) a mere 'mixture of finely-divided plies hate'and' sulfur would be compar'ativelg inc ective'as a fertilizer, and even a groun mixture thereof in the form of a substantially impalpable powder would possibl exercise its functions but slowly. 1 pre er, therefore, that there should-always be present in the mixture when applied to'the soil either the one or the other (and sometimes both) of these-added ingredients, and I regard as a art 0f my resent invention the discovery t at the ad ition of potash or of nitrogen to 'a mixture offinely-d1videdphos phate and sulfur (whetherground together or not) results in a stimulating and effective utilization of the mixture, Where it would otherwise-remain almost inert or but slowly active.

' Having thus described my invention, what I claim is A'fertilizer, having as a constituent part a WILLIAM BAGHMAN CHIBOLM.

Witnesses:

JOHN D. MULLER L. W. WRITING. 

